Divorce Recovery

There is nothing easy about ending a love relationship. Divorce is not the ideal solution to marital problems but it happens sometimes. The person who was once your best friend, life companion, someone to raise your children with, whom you imagined growing old with now may in some ways be your enemy. Divorce shatters much that you knew and dreamed about before.

For many people a divorce is one of the most painful experiences of their life. Most of us never acquire the tools to deal with a loss of this magnitude. The depth of pain depends on many factors such as whether or not the divorce is your choice, remaining childhood wounds, individual sensitivities to the meaning of life experiences and how dependant one has been on their partner to feel worthwhile.

A person in divorce often deals with overwhelming feelings and thoughts – chaos, grieving, sadness, despair, anger, revenge, doubts, hoping, negotiating, fears of what the future will bring, hopelessness, helplessness, loneliness – all emotions that can seem out of control.

The end of a marriage forces us to jump into a world of new experiences. Fortunately this time of feeling crazy will in all likelihood come to an end. The pain of divorce if confronted in a useful way can motivate people to confront personal issues, to discover more about who they are, and to find strengths and abilities they didn’t know they had. Psychotherapy can make an enormous difference as you move forward.  Many people even look back on their divorce as a real opportunity for personal growth. Painful as it is, a person can feel more alive and draw on inner resources to experience life fully.

Encino Family Therapist